this may be the 1st posting using a sigma 18-50mm lens? i like the smokestack clouds and the perfect rectilinear vines below ....velvia colors to boot too ...love that region in the bay ;-))

Ever since my wedding shoot at the beginning of March, I've had the 18-50. Also it's the new Macro lens. Sigma discontinued the regular 18-50. In the next couple of days I'm ordering the Zuiko 11-22 as I've seen the need for the extra width in some instances.

Quite nice. I love the colors.

Regards, Chris

I really like this image Jeff. The colors really jump out at you and the compo with the vines as a counterpoint to the clouds in the sight lines works really well imo. Dee Vee's description of the "smokestack" clouds is right on. The only thing that my taste would change is the----- no I wouldn't. At first I thought it might be too vivid with the saturation or bightness, but second consideration would prompt me to leave it alone. very well captured. gss

I like the dynamics of the landscape in gthis picture and of course the colours are great!

I'm sitting staring at this thinking of all the reasons why this has impact to me as a UK viewer. Then I suddenly realised there was not one shadow, yet everything seemed so brilliantly bright. Which made me wonder if this was something to do with the sun being perhaps higher in the sky than I'm used to. But there again, surely not. Perhaps I'm talking rubbish, as I often do :0)

Thanks Chris. It had rained early in the morning and about mid morning the whole valley was filled with these huge puff clouds. This shot was at about 1:30 in the afternoon and the sun was going in and out of cloud cover, that is why the lighting effect on the ground stands out.

I had always been under the impression in order to get a dramatic shot it had to be in either sunrise or sunset lighting and then I ran across a photographer in Hawaii who's photos just astounded me and I could not believe the color he was pulling out of them. I thought he must have some special post process. I contacted him and he said he still shoots film with velvia and for the most part does very little post process. He stressed very heavy on using a polarizer and shooting at midday. As I said, the midday part threw me as it was the opposite of what I thought I knew which was that it made things look flat, which it will if your shooting towards the sun. Shooting at right angles to the sun or with it at your back at midday maximizes the polarization effect and makes everything have more depth. Maybe this is photog 101 to most of you but for me it was something new as I always gravitated to shooting towards the sun. Here's his website if you want to take a look. http://www.hawaiianphotos.net

Jeff- Wonderful photo with great colors! Yes, I have also heard/read that the only time worth taking photos was the morning & the evening. All the photo magazines/books make a big point of this- they make it sound like there is about a 5 minute window and you should spend the rest of the day hiding in a closet or something. I disagree with that myself, some of my personal best photos were taken in the middle of the day in the desert of Arizona! And if you are shooting digital who cares? Shoot! You might get a great photo (you probably wouldn't if you were in the closet), and its not like you're wasting film! Keep it up.

An excellent photo. Congrats Jeff. Regards